Chethana Janith, Jadetimes Staff
C. Janith is a Jadetimes news reporter covering science and geopolitics.
Donald Trump called his Sunday rally in New York City an “absolute lovefest,” despite bipartisan demands for him to personally apologize following a comedian's joke that sparked widespread offense.
The Republican presidential nominee said he was “honored to be part” of the Madison Square Garden event but sought to distance himself from the stand-up comic who referred to Puerto Rico as “an island of garbage” during the routine.
With the 5 November election just a week away, opinion polls indicate a tight race between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Both candidates are intensifying efforts to appeal to Latino voters in Pennsylvania, a key swing state that is home to over 470,000 Puerto Ricans.
On Tuesday night, Trump is set to campaign in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a town with a significant Latino population.
The backlash over Tony Hinchliffe's controversial joke has sparked outrage among members of the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States. Several prominent Puerto Ricans, including some of Trump's own supporters, have called for him to condemn the routine publicly.
Angel Cintron, president of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party, expressed his disapproval in a statement to the Associated Press, calling the joke “disgraceful, ignorant, and totally reprehensible.”
In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Trump distanced himself from Hinchliffe, saying, "I don't know him, someone put him up there. I don't know who he is." Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump doubled down on his description of the rally, claiming it was an "absolute lovefest" and emphasizing, "The love in that room. It was breathtaking."
Meanwhile, Trump’s allies have responded by criticizing Democrats. They accused actor George Lopez of making an offensive joke about Mexicans at a Kamala Harris rally in Arizona over the weekend.
Over the weekend, Kamala Harris introduced a new policy platform for Puerto Rico, pledging to boost economic development and strengthen disaster relief efforts. She criticized Trump for having “abandoned and insulted” the island during Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The Trump campaign fired back, claiming his administration had invested heavily in rebuilding Puerto Rico’s infrastructure, providing billions of dollars in grant funding for recovery after the storm.
At another campaign stop in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Trump assured a Puerto Rican voter that his administration had “helped you through a lot of bad storms.” He asserted, “I think no president's done more for Puerto Rico than I have.”
Aiming to move past the controversy, Trump shifted focus to his criticisms of Harris, blaming her for issues at the border and rising inflation. “On issue after issue, she broke it,” he declared. “I’m going to fix it and fix it very fast.”
